The death toll from a powerful earthquake in northern Morocco has risen to at least 564, but rescuers have kept up a frantic search for survivors under the rubble of devastated mud-brick homes.
Hundreds of other people were reported injured in and around the Mediterranean port city of Al Hoceima when the quake, measuring 6.5 on the Richter scale, struck early yesterday as many people were sleeping in their houses.
"The death toll has risen to 564," Health Minister Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah told state television 2M.
Dozens of aftershocks and rain made relief efforts even more difficult in outlying villages in the foothills of the Rif mountains.
North Africa's last major earthquake hit neighbouring Algeria last May. It measured 6.8 on the Richter scale and killed 2,300 people near the capital Algiers.
Morocco suffered its worst recorded quake in 1960. It destroyed the Atlantic city of Agadir, killing 12,000 people.
Ms Josephine Shields, an official with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Tunis, said six villages within 15 kilometres of Al Hoceima had been hit by Tuesday's quake.
"We've been told that the entire affected area has between 300,000 and 400,000 people. It is a remote area, very mountainous, so it is a bit difficult to access."
Morocco's state MAP news agency said King Mohammed planned to visit the disaster area.